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• Best Replacement for Your Second Car

  Dutch Bike Co. - CLOSED

  Not everyone wants to don fluorescent spandex just to get some errands done in a non-carbon-producing manner. So why not turn instead to the Dutch Bike Co. in Ballard? Their super-sturdy, Euro-style two-wheelers are like Volvo station wagons for the peak-oil set, with racks, baskets, saddlebags, and a giant front-mounted wooden cargo box beefy enough to pedal a couple kids… More >>

• Best Store for Discount Designer Jeans

  Jeans Direct

  If you're a member of the moneyed set, Bellevue has a lot going on, especially in the clothes department. But if you're, say, a mysteriously employed writer living on the Eastside, then Jeans Direct is a denim-centric godsend. Loftily titled designer labels, such as 7 for All Mankind and True Religion, go for 50 to 75 percent of their original… More >>

• Best Electronics-Store Customer Service

  U. Village Apple Store

  For some of us, at least, the decision to finally get an iPhone came only after weeks of anguished cost-benefit analysis and sleepless nights of worrying whether it was too flashy and ostentatious. Then came the purchaser's remorse—the money spent, but no idea how to turn the thing on. What is this "slider" everyone keeps mentioning? Where are the buttons?… More >>

• Best Fashion Statement That Needs a Comeback

  Socks and Sandals

  After a revealing Fourth of July weekend, I'm not so sure that socks and sandals have faded away sufficiently to require a comeback. Still, nothing sticks it to the man quite like Tevas over GoldToes. In many ways, this is the mullet of footwear, a multipurpose ensemble that gets disrespected until it comes in handy, like that night at the… More >>

• Best Well-Selected Sonic Weirdness

  Dissonant Plane

  Ballard's Resolution Audio looks a bit like a furniture showroom, all quiet and woody and carpety. Upstairs, on a little platform off to one side, a half-dozen well-packed shelves hold the inventory of Dissonant Plane, Seattle's premiere niche-music boutique since its opening last December. Perhaps it's not apparent what contemporary classical music and doom metal have in common; proprietor Eric… More >>

• Best Alternative to the Straightening Iron

  Saely Beauty Salon

  That effortlessly silky hair so many Asian women possess? News flash: It ain't always natural. Many of these women—including myself—actually undergo an intense chemical process every six months that permanently straightens all new hair growth. The Japanese thermal straightening method was introduced to stateside salons several years ago, but stylists here still charge clients upward of $500 for the service.… More >>

• Best Place to Shop When You're a Closet Yuppie

  Banana Republic's Clearance Rack

  You wouldn't know it from cruising the bike messengers swarming the nearby Monorail Espresso, but the Banana Republic's Clearance Rack is a nice pot of gold at the end of the metrosexual rainbow. And for those of us who have a physical reaction to the Office Depot–chic decor of American Apparel, it's a safe house for high-quality threads in the… More >>

• Best Mother-Child Consignment Corner

  Gather and Sweet Pea's

  It's hard to find a good consignment store. Either the stuff is too old and musty— like things dragged down from Grandma's attic—or the prices are not all that less than what you'd be paying for new. Which is why any woman or child, or better yet woman with child, should go immediately to the intersection of Rainier Avenue South… More >>

• Best Place to Jump on the Retro-Chic Hipster Bandwagon

  Pretty Parlor

  Be honest. Sometimes you see those hipsters walking around with their pin-up bangs and vintage cardigans and '70s-style ties and you think, "That is so adorable!" The fact is, you can only be a hipster-hater for so long before you kind of start thinking about cutting your hair to look like Bettie Page and wearing something with big ironic polka… More >>

• Best Place to Pamper Your Feet

  The Woolly Mammoth

  Back in the '60s, the Ave was a place for aimless hippies and college kids to mingle. Circling in the crowd was law-school dropout Patrick Andre. Andre, tall and hairy, was known to friends as the Woolly Mammoth, so in 1970, when he decided to turn his love of leather into a shop selling bags, vests, and the like, he… More >>

• Best Source for Last-Minute Gifts

  Kobo at Higo

  Sometimes life gets in the way, and we need a little help being our naturally thoughtful selves. Part gallery, Kobo at Higo features the work of Japanese and American artists, with a focus on ceramics. Part store, the space holds an eclectic mix of jewelry, cards, and unique objects you can actually afford. It's as though some stylish fairy godmother… More >>

• Best Alternative to Stitch 'n' Bitch

  Fusion Beads

  Most Seattle women have learned that the only way to stay sufficiently sane during our dreary winter months is by getting crafty. For those of you who never really got into that whole "Stitch 'n' Bitch" movement, Fusion Beads in Wallingford is a welcome alternative to the yarn (or is it yawn?) store. The name of their game is selection,… More >>

• Best Independent Fashion Boutique

  the Powder Room

  It feels like you're ransacking your chic older sister's closet when you shop at the Powder Room. Even the smallest of available spaces is crammed with eye-catching prints, flirty dresses, and funky jewelry. And you're tempted to try on everything you set eyes on. Luckily, none of the goodies in this adorable boutique cost over $50. Owner Cindy Speare buys… More >>

• Best Hair Salon

  Bombaii Cutters

  Bombaii Cutters is fabulously funky. Britney Spears' music blares on the stereo. Plastic giraffes and zebras stand under real palm trees. The salon owner's dog, a sassy Shih Tzu named Daisy, sunbathes by the entrance and yaps when clients walk in. The laid-back atmosphere is a far cry from that of most trendy salons. Here you can get a fierce… More >>
• 

  Best Something-in-a-Box for Your Lady

  Ballard Blossom

  When you've really got your significant one steamed and see a month's worth of sleeping on the couch in your future, picking up a bouquet of flowers from the grocery store probably isn't gonna cut it. Instead, try heading to Ballard Blossom for some flowers in a box. It may sound crazy, but somehow taking blooms you would have gotten… More >>

• Best Playground for Tiny (Four-Legged) Tots

  Fuzzy Buddy's Dog Daycare

  A playground situated next to a cemetery on Aurora Avenue doesn't sound especially appealing. In fact, it sounds rather unpleasant. But the small fry scampering about Fuzzy Buddy's Dog Daycare are oblivious to their dead neighbors. They're infatuated with the center because it recognizes and caters to the needs of a pint-sized posse. Fuzzy Buddy's hosts weekly small dog meet-ups,… More >>

• Best New Downtown Kiosk

  Frank Turco Memorial Newsstand

  Like the sidewalk coffee cart, traditional newsstands have been disappearing from Seattle. Increasingly, people get their news online or on their iPhone, often inside a coffee shop with wi-fi. For this reason, the swoopy new red-roofed Frank Turco Memorial Newsstand is more than an exercise in nostalgia for 29-year-old owner Benjamin Gant, who bought the ugly old kiosk, not much… More >>